Notes

Abstract

FOR the first time for about forty years the Royal Society of Edinburgh, on the evening of June 6, held a conversazione. Lord and Lady Kelvin and Sir William Turner received the guests. There were many interesting exhibits from several departments of the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and St. Andrews, from the Geological Survey of Scotland, the Scottish Antarctic Expedition, &c. Prof. Mclntosh, of St. Andrews, sent over a large collection of pearl shells and animals, living and dead, and great interest was taken in Prof. Ewart's exhibition of hybrid ponies. Some of the lantern exhibits were particularly attractive, notably the projection on the screen of tanks of living worms, crustacea, &c, and a fine selection of slides made from Piazzi Smyth's “cloud” negatives. Among the inventions and novelties exhibited, Dr. Halm's instruments for mechanically correcting stellar observations and for solving Kepler's problem in any given case, and Dr. Hugh Marshall's petrol incandescence lamp are worthy of mention.